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A La Carte (11/19)

A La Carte Collection cover image

The other day I noticed that a box of granola bars, the kind we always buy, mentioned that they now have fewer calories. I thought that was cool. But then I compared the new box to the old and saw how they had lowered the calories–they had simply made the granola bars 10% smaller. I guess they technically didn’t lie…

Deeds Done in Darkness – WORLD writes about Sayed Mossa, a Christian who has been imprisoned for his faith in Afghanistan.

Christian Audio Twice Yearly Sale – ChristianAudio is having their twice yearly sale during which almost every item in their store is on sale at $7.49.

The Six-Second Kiss – Jani Ortlund with a word for the wives: “What can six seconds do for you? Woman to woman, let me encourage you that just six seconds a day can help safeguard your marriage.”

Class Warfare – Here’s a history of economy class and first class on airplanes. In all my traveling I’ve never once experienced anything but economy. Some day I’ll get the lucky upgrade.

Using the Seven Deadly Sins – Smashing Magazine, an online magazine for web designers, has an interesting article here in which they encourage designers to use the seven deadly sins to turn visitors into customers. I see this as a bit of a statement on our human nature.

The iPhone I Can’t Keep in My Pants – I am coming across a lot of articles like this one in which Dave Pell writes about the Giants’ World Series parade: “Along with thousands of others — including the players themselves — I captured some digital snapshots, but missed the moment. We walk around with what seems like infinite access in our pockets and yet we often experience our lives through two-inch screens.”

Cell Phones and Cancer – And while we’re on the subject of cell phones, the Times writes about how little we really know about the relation between cell phones and cancer. For example, it’s interesting to note that “the legal departments of cellphone manufacturers slip a warning about holding the phone against your head or body into the fine print of the little slip that you toss aside when unpacking your phone.”

We must never imagine that the existence of love and wrath in the same nature is evidence of a split personality, but only evidence that God is greater than can be grasped in our finite logic.

—J.A. Motyer

  • Weekend A La Carte (November 7)

    The Hutterites’ guide to technology / Searching for jobs, Gen Z feels like it’s staring into ‘the void’ / The gospel according to Peter (Thiel) / Scientism and the allure of control / Can science explain sparkling rivers? / What led to Christianity Today’s crisis?

  • I Regret to Inform You That Heaven Tourism Is Back

    I Regret to Inform You That Heaven Tourism Is Back

    I regret to inform you, dear reader, that heaven tourism is back. The genre possibly never went away entirely, but it did at least disappear from the bestseller lists for several years. Sadly, it has returned in Gabe Poirot’s 18 Days in Heaven.

  • A La Carte (November 6)

    Don’t despise the red flags / Your thoughts are shaping your life / Can’t you just love everyone? / Selfies are not the self: forming embodied youth in a disembodied age / Effective altruists and the spreadsheet gospel / 4 Applications for the order of love—from the home to the ends of the earth /…

  • A La Carte (November 5)

    When you feel guilty about your giving / The missing piece in John Mark Comer’s quiet time / A manifesto for phone-free church / The pull of Rome / 4 Misconceptions about spiritual warfare / Slouching toward Narnia / Kindle deals, and more

  • A Daring Suggestion for Netflix

    A Daring Suggestion for Netflix

    Netflix appears to have fallen on hard times and I have some suggestions that I’d like to think would help it: cut the sex, nudity, and profanity, and gain back the viewers it’s long been alienating.

  • A La Carte (November 4)

    Can I love my enemies while addressing wrongs and protecting myself? / Is missions too costly for kids? / Don’t stock the pantry with temptation / Churches face a shortage of worship leaders / AI brought a mathematician to Ecclesiastes / Discerning between godly and worldly grief / Harvest in fearful times / and more.